my first post...just want some input

[pr00fX]

allright as i said this is my first post...ive been hanging around xp-erience awhile but never had anything to post about..until now...

allright i am panning on building a pc for myself within the next month and ive been doing alot of research but i could really use some input...
here are the parts I am looing at

athlon xp 2400+
soyo KT-400 Dragon ultra mobo
256mb ddr 2700 crucial
this case
i could really use a recomendation on a video card
right now i am looking at

Geforce 4 Ti 4200 128ddr

but i am really open to suggestions...

also any suggestions on anything else you think i might be wise to look at...

thanks

 

[Mubbers]

Well everyone's got their own opinion on what's the best video card.

I recently bought the GF4 4600 Ti and it's great. A lot has been said about The GF4600 vs the Radeon 9700 pro and looking at the threads in Hardware I couldn't work out why the extra $£ for the radeon.

I'd also think about getting a bit more RAM, 512mb would be my minimum but make sure you only have to install one stick and not 2 x 256mb (as this wastes slots and ultimately you might have to dump a stick of memory when you (inevitabely) upgrade.

Look at the sponsors website RAM is really quite cheap...! Plus it also has a great explanation of the slots and ram pairing issues I mentioned.

Also check some of the threads on HDD's they could be quite helpful to you as well.

I'd also check how much RAM your MOBO can take as your 2.4GHz processor should last a fair while. Lastly Isn't XP home limited to 1024Mb Ram? In which case you may want to get XP Pro.

Mubbers

 

[Zedric]

The Ti4200 is good if you don't want to spend to much cash. I have one and it works for me.

 

[pr00fX]

allright...thanks for the info about the ram...yeah 512 sounds better...and yes i definitely will be running XPpro...ill check out the 4600 a little more closely

oh yeah... anyone explain this RAID thing to me...
thanks

 

[Jewelzz]

I have no input, just wanted to welcome you to XP-erience...Hi fellow Arizonin (is that what we're called lol)

 

[pr00fX]

Arizonin or Arizonian...not quite sure ive only lived here for about a month

 

[Sazar]

Posted by Mubbers
Well everyone's got their own opinion on what's the best video card.

I recently bought the GF4 4600 Ti and it's great. A lot has been said about The GF4600 vs the Radeon 9700 pro and looking at the threads in Hardware I couldn't work out why the extra $£ for the radeon.

I'd also think about getting a bit more RAM, 512mb would be my minimum but make sure you only have to install one stick and not 2 x 256mb (as this wastes slots and ultimately you might have to dump a stick of memory when you (inevitabely) upgrade.

Look at the sponsors website RAM is really quite cheap...! Plus it also has a great explanation of the slots and ram pairing issues I mentioned.

Also check some of the threads on HDD's they could be quite helpful to you as well.

I'd also check how much RAM your MOBO can take as your 2.4GHz processor should last a fair while. Lastly Isn't XP home limited to 1024Mb Ram? In which case you may want to get XP Pro.

Mubbers

get at least 512 ram yes..

just wanted to clear a coupla things up concerning what mubbers posted

firstly... the radeon 9700pro IS the most powerful card on the market in terms of everything... it is just flat out better than anything out there at least till the start of the next year... it plays ALL games I have (and I have most of the latest) at fulls specs with all eye candy turned on @ 1600x1200.... name one other card out there that does this...

ut2k3.. full specs... flawless performance

the card can be bought for around 300 now... at many on line retailers... it is also fully dx 9 compliant and has a lot of bandwidth for extra textures and what not... personally I think if you are getting a new vid card... get the radeon 9500pro... should be a little higher than the ti 4200 and outperforms the ti4600... the 9700 regular (non-pro) is the other option... should be well under 300 bucks on the internet...

and... the 2400+ from amd does not run @ 2.4ghz but it outperforms an equivalent 2.4ghz processor from intel..

 

[Kush]

just make sure the geforce works haha mine didnt work and now i sent it to my cuzin to return it for an exchange but the store wouldnt take it becuz of the 30 day policy so he has to send it to visiontek becuz its a visiontek geforce 4 4600ti!

 

[Mubbers]

Posted by Sazar
just wanted to clear a coupla things up concerning what mubbers posted

firstly... the radeon 9700pro IS the most powerful card on the market in terms of everything... it is just flat out better than anything out there at least till the start of the next year... it plays ALL games I have (and I have most of the latest) at fulls specs with all eye candy turned on @ 1600x1200.... name one other card out there that does this...

... don't believe everything you read on a spec sheet. Each of these cards comes with at least a page and a half of nonsense about tri-lineal anti-thingummy whatsit.

The GF4 4600 Ti cost me £172 whereas the ATI Radeon 9700 pro was £285. The bottom line is that I am playing games like UT2003 with 'everything on' very smoothly at 1600x1200 resolution.

But the best thing is that I also have £100 more in my pocket to spend on RAM, which I think is your issue (value?).

So line up two computers, one with a...

GF4 4600 Ti + extra 1024Mb RAM vs one with a Radeon 9700pro and no extra RAM.

Answers on a postcard..?

I'll give Sazar the clock speed (2.0 GHz). However the point I was making about the 'useful' life of the CPU/MOBO and it's RAM capacity remains the same. It's likely you'll need more RAM before you need an faster CPU.

Mubbers

 

[pr00fX]

Posted by Mubbers
... But the best thing is that I also have £100 more in my pocket to spend on RAM, which I think is your issue (value?).

So line up two computers, one with a...

GF4 4600 Ti + extra 1024Mb RAM vs one with a Radeon 9700pro and no extra RAM...

allright...can you tell me where i can buy a gig of ram for £100?

 

[koko]

yeah! what mubbers said.

 

[Mubbers]

Sorry, scroll back to Sazars post and look under his avatar. U see that logo "Upgrade today and Save" that's our sponsors logo. If you click there you'll go to their site.

See how you do...

Mub's

Also Zedric's the man to speak on RAID I'll dig out a link to a thread he helped me on in a minute!

 

[Mubbers]

Here you go... Taurus and Zedric do alot of explaining about RAID. In the end I just went for a big ugly fast HDD.

Which HDD - speed essential

Mub's

P.S. I think it's Arizinionite

 

[pr00fX]

thanks for think link to that thread mubbers...very informative.

did you set up a raid array? was there a noticable speed increase? is it worth looking more into?

 

[ZAnwar]

Simple Explanation : In RAID, you need 2 hardrives, one is the one you are working on, and the second one is completely identical but a backup, incase the first one fails.

(I think!)

 

[Mubbers]

Yeah Z's right. It's all on page two of that thread I linked you to.

Basically RAID work across 2 HDD's and shares data in one of two ways...

Stripes or Mirrors. In mirror data is duplicated on both drives... awe hell read the thread coz I can't remember!!!

Actually I never bothered with RAID. Some of the possible consequences Zedirc & co talked about put me off - so I just went for a good drive.

Mub's

 

[pr00fX]

well, unfortunatly I've overestimated my budget so now I'm looking towards some parts that are a little less expensive

 

[Mubbers]

Plenty of good stuff out there for a lot less $!!

Good hunting - you can always upgrade

Mubbers

 

[Zedric]

Thanks Mubbers you are way too kind!

I would not recommend running RAID unless you have a good reason for it. RAID 0 is risky and RAID 1 is safe but expensive (and space-wasting). RAID 5 is great but even more expensive. IMO.

 

[pr00fX]

allright...no raid...anyone know where i can order a really cheap monitor?